


Lies

by MistyBeethoven



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Contemplation, Epiphanies, Episode: s05e11 They Did What?, Gotham City - Freeform, Lies, Love, M/M, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 02:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18791545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyBeethoven/pseuds/MistyBeethoven
Summary: Wherein Edward Nygma is kept company by his namesake and contemplates both Gotham City and leaving Oswald Cobblepot behind.





	Lies

The damn dog kept staring at him.

Edward Nygma was becoming increasingly annoyed under the canine's ceaseless watch. It had taken him forever to coax the dog to enter the dark confines of the submarine. Still, Oswald had entrusted him with the damn pooch and the Riddler felt obliged to care for him.

It was one of the few things that the man had left him with, after all: a shitload of gold and one dog.

Nygma preferred the gold.

"So you were my replacement, huh?" Edward said fooling around with the periscope and glancing at the dejected looking bulldog. "I would have chosen a more elegant breed; a greyhound maybe?"

Riddler fought a momentary wave of regret and jealousy as he looked at the beast, remembering Cobblepot's exit. "Stop looking so upset," Ed ordered. "At least you got a goodbye. Doesn't really matter though, does it? Looks like he left us _both_ in the end."

The dog looked like it was about to burst into tears, Riddler thought. The man cursed himself. He had shouted at a hillbilly woman a while ago for anthropomorphising a dog and now here he was thinking one was going to weep because he had been abandoned? Edward Nygma wondered if he was projecting his own feelings onto the creature and suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

The man in green quickly peered through the periscope's lens at the city he was about to leave. It was a bloody mess, one that would take years to rebuild if it ever reached such a stage. Maybe it was better to just let it burn.

Gotham was built on a lie, after all. Rumour had it that the settlers that had founded the city had feigned some sort of insanity to keep outsiders away. In early times madness had been considered catching and the rest of the country had given the little village a wide berth in case they found themselves growing crazy as well.

Looking at the city now, a mammoth thing no longer a village, isolated from everything, Nygma thought they had played their role too well. Gotham's inhabitants were alone and the feigned madness had seemingly over the years become all too real.

Riddler looked through the periscope and could see his destination.

Away from Gotham. Away from the desperate desolation.

Away from Oswald Cobblepot.

The lens suddenly blurred. Edward Nygma wondered if it had been sprayed by water until he realized that he was crying.

He backed away from the periscope and tried to ignore the stream of tears falling down his cheeks. Nygma wanted to pretend he had only told his friend he would miss him out of politeness. He did not want to _truly_ miss Oswald Cobblepot.

His eyes rested on the dog again. Why had Oswald even bothered naming the thing after him?

It had been a question he had tried not to consider the answer to; he had tried to believe it was only an insult of some kind. Deep down he had always known the real reason though. With only the dog as company in the lonely submarine, and with the looming prospect of never seeing the Penguin again, Edward now accepted the truth: Oswald had missed him. Despite his earlier denial, Cobblepot would miss him even now.

It all came down to one simple truth: Oswald Cobblepot was still in love with Edward Nygma. The man had only lied, offered up other excuses, so his heart would not be broken again.

Lies. That was what they kept doing to one another. That was what they kept doing to themselves. They used them like a shield so they would not be hurt by the truth.

Gotham had become a byword for fools a long time ago and a place for fools it still was: fools who lied to themselves to feel protected.

Would one more lie make any difference, the Riddler wondered?

"Damn!" Nygma screamed warrenting a half scared and half curious glance from his canine passenger.

"I don't know what I was thinking! I can't pilot this thing by myself!" Ed exclaimed to the bulldog that was staring at him. "Guess I'm stuck here with Oswald, after all. I'd better go and find him."

Edward rushed to the ladder. He turned and cast an apologetic nod to Edward the dog. "Don't worry. We'll be back," he promised as he climbed out of the submarine, not knowing that it was a lie as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Mark Forsythe's "A Christmas Cornucopia" for showing me the connection between Santa Claus and Gotham. It was a gift from an English relative. I also received an umbrella. :)


End file.
